The Experiment
by Schemer Skye
Summary: Hiyori expanded her reiatsu slightly to make sure where everyone was at. Love was in his room, Rose and Lisa were on a date, Hachi in the living room, Kensei was training with Mashiro. No Shinji. Perfect. Hiyori couldn't be sure she could handle the embarrassment of the newly reappointed Fifth Squad captain walking in while she tried her little experiment.


"Hiyori?"

"What?" she snapped, irritated to be interrupted from her task at hand.

"Why are you going through Lisa's make-up bag?" Love asked, scratching his head, the sight before him not comprehending.

Hiyori looked up and glared at him from where she was crouched on the floor, rifling through brushes, mirrors, lipsticks, mascara, and whatever-the-hell-that-one-thing-that-looked-like- a-torture-device was called.

She didn't really have an answer for his question and instead asked snarkily," Why are you always borrowing her porn?"

"Touché," was all he said before walking away.

Hiyori returned to staring blankly at the contents within the bag, occasionally picking one up to wonder what the hell it was supposed to be doing in a make-up bag. Like pencils. Why the fuck would someone need to draw on their face?

Gritting her teeth, she zipped up the bag and hauled it(the bag weighed like fifty pounds) back to her room, setting it down on her dresser. Hiyori expanded her reiatsu slightly to make sure where everyone was at. Love was in his room, Rose and Lisa were on a date, Hachi in the living room, Kensei was training with Mashiro. No Shinji. Perfect. Hiyori couldn't be sure she could handle the embarrassment of the newly reappointed Fifth Squad captain walking in while she tried her little experiment. Because that was all this was. An experiment. No different than the kind she performed in the Twelfth Division a century ago.

Actually, since her near death experience Hiyori had been feeling a little….left out, so to speak. She had suddenly realized all the things she hadn't done in her life, and as much as she loved fighting it hadn't left her with any chance to actually try being a girl. Which(despite what a lot of people-_cough_, _Shinji, cough_-might say)is what she was, and she was curious about all this gook that Lisa and Mashiro hoarded like it was the end of the world.

Hiyori rummaged through her closet until she found a small, ivory handled mirror with a crack down the middle of the glass. It had originally been a gift from Rose for her birthday but she had thought mirrors were unnecessary so she'd flung it into her filthy closet without a second thought. She tried to wipe the clouded spots off the glass with the edge of her shirt with little success.

She undid the bag and once again her hand hovered over its contents. What do you use first? What the fuck was that? Why are there so many shades of this thing called 'concealer'? Chewing on her lip, she decided on the only thing that she knew the function of. Lipstick. Hiyori grabbed the first one she saw, squinting to read the little label on the bottom. _Star-Dusted Wine_. The fuck did that mean?

She turned it over in her hands, uncapping the top and nearly gagged at the dark purple color with a crap load of glitter thrown in. Did Lisa really wear this shit? Hiyori adjusted the mirror with her other hand to where she could still see her face (barely) in it and not have to hold on to it. Twisting the bottom, more of the ungodly purple glitter stick popped out. Hiyori leant forward, nearly crossing her eyes at the mirror, forming a lopsided O-shape with her lips like she'd seen women on TV do. Then, she slowly lifted the tube of lipstick to her mouth. Hiyori grimaced at first when the chalky substance breached contact, smearing it on her lips.

When she was done, Hiyori pulled back and shuddered at the lopsided glittery mess that surrounded her lips and a bled a little bit outside of her lips. It felt awkward and her lips felt dry and she had to force herself from licking her lips or wiping the stuff off with her hand.

Hiyori reached back into the bag pulling out that weird concealer shit, a cream of some sort in a pump bottle. She squirted some into her hand, rubbing it across both her palms before reaching up and rubbing it onto her face like sunscreen, trying to avoid getting it on her mouth. When she was done putting it on every crevice of her face, she once again reached into her _magic_ bag (note the sarcasm) and found the stupidest most useless shit yet.

"_Fake eyelashes_. Why the fuck would someone need fake fucking eyelashes? Everyone in the fucking world has fucking eyelashes, but of course some dumbass decides oh no you need to have eyelashes on top of your own fucking eyelashes," Hiyori ranted," because of course that just makes so much goddamn sense. They even have fucking fake diamonds on the tip. How classy."

But, despite how much she hated it, they were an equation of the experiment that she couldn't leave out. With much grumbling and cursing, Hiyori squeezed the small tube of glue and place the white goo on the top of her lash line, making sure it was thick so the lashes wouldn't fall off. Finally, she pressed the lashes on. Checking in the mirror, one of them was kinda crooked and the other was a little bit towards the outer edge of her eye and she could clearly see the white line of glue clearly.

Next she was gonna try the 'eyeliner' . That weird pencil looking thing, that if she were to make an educated guess about was supposed to go around your eyes. Or something like that. Hiyori brought her eyes as close as possible to the mirror, wondering how that was supposed to work exactly. They didn't actually put it on their waterline, did they? Nah, Hiyori decided that would be too painful for anyone to do.

The next option would be the top of her eyelid, but she already put the fake fucking eyelashes on. Why the hell didn't these things come with instructions?! Maybe.. Maybe the went on the crease that was slightly _below_ her waterline. Hiyori had never seen Mashiro or Lisa wear it like that but screw it. It wasn't like anyone was going to see her all dolled up. This was just an _experiment._ She repeated that sentiment in her head. Following her theory she traced a thin black line into the dip in her skin.

When she had done both sides, Hiyori pulled back from the mirror and grimaced at the image she saw. It wasn't that bad, she rationalized, for a first attempt. Sure, she looked like a crack head but after a few more attempts she figured she'd have this whole makeup thing down pat.

_Slam!_

Hiyori leaped a foot in the air when her door was unexpectedly opened.

_Fuck, fuck, fuck. Please don't be Shin-_

" Hey midget, what's goin- Holy shit! Why do you look like a baby prostitute?!" Shinji yelled. Loudly.

"Get out of my room!" she roared back, leaping up to slam the door in his face. His hand caught the door before it shut and he shoved himself into her room. Hiyori scowled, hoping the concealer on her face covered up her embarrassed blush(Maybe that's what it was for?).

Shinji was doing a very good impression of a fish out of water, his mouth opening and closing and his eyes practically bugging out of his head. Hiyori was suddenly filled with an unhealthy desire to rip his eyes out of his head and shove them down his damn throat. He was really being such a drama queen, hasn't he ever seen a girl wear make-up before?

"Are you deaf as well as stupid? 'Cause I just told you to get the hell out of my room!," Hiyori snarled, shoving his chest and trying to forcefully shove him out.

How much more embarrassing could this get? She just wanted to curl up in a ditch somewhere and die. Instead of bending to her will like he normally did, Shinji returned back to his normal (although still slightly dazed) look, a frown on his face. She felt her cheeks heat up more as he scrutinized her with those brown eyes of his. He grabbed her hands which were resting on his chest (she'd stopped pushing the minute their eyes met).

Then he grinned cheekily, gave her a peck on the lips, leaned away with a little smear of purple on his lips and sang," Be right back."

And with that said dashed out the room.

What. The. Hell. He just waltzed his ass in here, called her a baby _fuckin_' prostitute, kissed her, and walked the hell out. Sometimes Hiyori wondered what she saw in that asshole.

Her door was opened again with Shinji dragging a bubbly Mashiro into her room. Great. Another person to laugh at her failure. Hiyori hoped that both of them knew that since they saw her like this she'd have to kill them.

"Shinji," she started to growl, but he cut her off as he pointed at her and told Mashiro seriously," Fix it."

Mashiro looked at Hiyori's face for the first time, and Hiyori clenched her fists ready to beat the crap out of the older girl if she so much as _thought_ this was even remotely funny.

The green haired Vizard just smiled and said," Okay!"

Shinji leaned over and ruffled Hiyori's hair, which she'd worn loose today because she knew he preferred it this way. She noted with a small twinge of satisfaction that he hadn't wiped the lipstick smudge off of his mouth.

"I'll be seeing you lovely ladies at dinner tonight," he called over his shoulder as he walked out.

Once the door clicked closed, Mashiro tittered in her usual childishness," I get to make Hiyori look pretty!"

Hiyori wondered if Mahsiro's version of pretty would be worse than what she'd done already.

After they had cleaned off her face to give Mashiro a clean canvas to work on, Hiyori found herself sitting on her bed as the older woman hovered over her and gave critique over her failed experiment.

"Your eyelashes are already really, _really_ long, Hiyori, you don't need fake lashes like Lisa. Without them she looks like her eyes are hairless," Mashiro commented as she delicately traced Hiyori's waterline and the top of her lashes with the eyeliner. It felt weird having someone else mess with her face.

" You have paler skin than Lisa, so that concealer wasn't your shade. Although," she mused, almost as if talking to herself, tapping her chin with the end of the pencil," Little Hiyori doesn't breakout the way me and Lisa do so she wouldn't have to wear it anyway."

_Wonderful to know_, she thought sourly, blinking rapidly to get used to the awkward feeling. Mashiro reached into the bag and uncapped a pearlescent pink tube, uncapping it. The cap had a brush sticking out of the side.

She pointed dramatically at it," This is lip-gloss. It is every girls best friend and a much better compatible shade for your hair and skin tone. The lipstick you were wearing anyway was for a costume or something Lisa had planned for Rose."

_Oh, really? Gross._ Hiyori didn't want to think about whatever "costume" Lisa had planned to wear for Rose. There were just some things better left unmentioned.

Mashiro instructed her to press her lips together, and Hiyori did just that. A few quick swipes and she rubbed her lips together spreading the gloss more evenly.

"Aaaaand _ta-da_!" Mashiro squealed, whipping out the mirror from behind her back, practically shoving it into Hiyori's face. They were done already? All the other Vizard had done was put eyeliner and lip-gloss on her! There was no way….

Her train of thought was halted as she stared into her reflection in the filthy glass. She looked…older. Sixteen instead of thirteen. The dramatic black that encircled her eyes made them appear to be a slightly deeper tone of honey-brown and the lip gloss made her lips seem poutier and covered up how chapped they were. It wasn't so different that Hiyori didn't recognize herself, it was just that with only two little tools she could see the prettier aspects of her face were brought out. The darkness of her eyes and the paleness of her skin and hair all combined made her just look…older. She couldn't get over that fact. It wasn't like her annoying cherub cheeks and childishly shaped proportions just disappeared but now they were less noticeable.

Hiyori liked it. She didn't have the sudden desire to get a shitload of makeup like Lisa and she didn't think she'd want to wear this crap everyday of her life from now on. But….it would be nice to have on special occasions and lip-gloss and eyeliner didn't seem too difficult to slap on whenever she wanted.

Mashiro pushed the mirror down and leant into Hiyori's face," You like it? I like it! I bet Shinji'll like it and Lisa and Rose and Hachi and Love and Ken-"

If anyone asked, she'd deny it, but at that moment Hiyori wrapped her arms around Mashiro's neck giving her a breif hug and whispered," Thanks."

She pulled away embarrassed at her actions. Mashiro just smiled serenely," Dontcha worry about it, Hiyori. I'm just happy to help!"

Hiyori stood up, shoving her mushy sisterly feelings she was having and started towards the door," Come on, we'll be late for dinner."

_Why didn't I just ask her or Lisa in the first place?_

Mostly because she didn't like relying on other people and thought she could do anything on her own. Every time she leant a little on someone they betrayed her, left her, died, or just simply never there for her when she needed them most. It wasn't even until recently that she had let Shinji in. The only family she had ever come close to having was with Kirio and her old Captain was long gone. The Vizards could be considered a "family" of sorts when they were together, but Hiyori had perceived them more as comrades that were united against a common enemy. It wasn't like they had been very close before the Hollofication. Sure, she had been friends with Shinji and Love but the others she had only known the names of.

A century and a whole war later even though three of them had returned, Hiyori found that without as much bitterness in her heart over Aizen she had room for other things. She loved Shinji, her dumbass partner (She refused to call him something as juvenile as her boyfriend). She was starting to see that relying on other people would no longer cause her pain. More importantly, Hiyori found herself longing for a family. She wanted the Vizards to be that family. Hiyori could picture it. Mashiro and Lisa as the crazy older sisters. Hachi as the grandfather. Love as an older brother. Rose some hippie they picked up off the street.

Maybe it was time she started letting them in a little more instead of biting their heads off or just ignoring them.

Who knew a stupid experiment on make-up would lead to this?

/

**Author's Note:** So, this all started because I had the image of Hiyori trying on make up and not knowing what the hell she's doing. Somewhere along the line it went from being a hilarious reaaaally short one-shot( about two pages long) into being six pages and instead of it ending with Shinji coming in and laughing his ass off ( like originally planned) I decided to add in a touching sisterly bonding moment between Mashiro and Hiyori.

Tried to keep everyone in character, and I'm pretty sure I failed. Horribly.


End file.
